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Torchic Line/ORAS
STUB PAGE. SilverStrangequark is working on this analysis. Torchic is found in both games as a starter, received from Professor Birch in Littleroot Town. It will be marked as a Route 101 Pokémon, however. The Torchic line was the first of the Hoenn starter lines to benefit from Mega Evolution, and possibly the one that got the biggest upgrade from it. The penchant towards physical sweeping has been heightened by the stat split, but the physical/special split and the amplification of Blaziken's movepool throughout the generations has made it a very versatile sweeper with a number of possible alternatives and niches. In addition to that, it still detains the title of best Fire-type available in all of Hoenn, now more than a foot above every other competitor, and that's an excellent characteristic to have in a region where the most dangerous Pokémon to fight happens to be a Steel-type. Important Matchups *'Rival (Route 103): '''Grind to level 7 or thereabouts and just spam Scratch. No reason to do anything else. Mudkip is slower than Torchic, and for some reason, in this battle starters are unlikely to use the supereffective attack against you, so you'll be fine. *'Gym #1 - Roxanne (Rustboro City, Rock-type): How good or bad this matchup will be depends entirely on whether you evolve your starter before the battle or not. Double Kick Combusken can nail both of Roxanne's Pokémon very easily, and bypass Sturdy as well, scoring a one-turn KO if powerful enough; Nosepass will probably take two kicks, but it's unlikely it'll take four, and Combusken is neutral to Rock now, so you don't need to worry about that. Avoid like the plague, however, if you still have a Torchic. You can get a better Pokémon for this fight very easily in the vicinities of Rustboro. *'Gym #2 - Brawly (Dewford Town, Fighting-type): '''Use Double Kick and weaken both of them as soon as you can, because they'll start using Bulk Up afterwards, and a critical hit Karate Chop from a +1 Machop isn't joking around. Luckily, Makuhita no longer has Vital Throw, and is unlikely to strike you five times with Arm Thrust. Don't waste your time using Ember: Thick Fat and Guts will both discourage you (the latter will in the event that it causes a burn). *'Rival (Route 110): 'Shroomish is a piece of cake for Combusken, and Slugma's most dangerous attack is Rock Throw, which makes it handle-able easily for your starter as well. Marshtomp's STABs are both supereffective against you, even if it doesn't have Water moves at this point, so don't even try it. *'Gym #3 - Wattson (Mauville City, Electric-type): 'Remember the Pledge tutor in Mauville City? If you haven't been there yet, get yourself Fire Pledge and wreck this gym. Magnemite has Sturdy though, so you're better off using Double Kick if you want to KO it in one turn. Magneton has Magnet Pull, so go with Fire Pledge. Same with Voltorb, which doesn't even have Selfdestruct in this generation. All of his Pokémon are pretty harmless for a Combusken. *'Maxie/Archie (Mt. Chimney): 'Mightyena is easy to handle with Double Kick, but don't try your luck against Golbat, because it's faster than you and has Air Cutter, a high critical hit ratio move. Camerupt is a bad idea due to Ground STAB, but you can tackle Sharpedo just fine because its only offensive moves are Assurance and Ice Fang. Watch out, however, for its Swagger; don't try fighting it unless you're at high HP, or a single self-hit induced by confusion might off Combusken. *'Gym #4 - Flannery (Lavaridge Town, Fire-type): 'All three of her Pokémon have Sunny Day, and Numel is the only one without Overheat, but it has Earth Power and Combusken won't fancy that. Dig is the best move you can get against both Slugma and Numel (the latter doesn't have Magnitude, so don't worry about that), but Torkoal is too bulky for you. Just bring in your Water tank for the last fight, and possibly for the other ones too: Dig implies you give a free setup turn to Flannery, and you bet she'll put up Sunny Day whenever she gets the chance, nerfing your future Water moves. *'Gym #5 - Norman (Petalburg City, Normal-type): ' *'Rival (Route 119): ' *'Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): ' *'Rival (Lilycove City): ' *'Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): ' *'Maxie/Archie (Seafloor Cavern): ' *'Primal Groudon (Cave of Origin, Omega Ruby only): ' *'Primal Kyogre (Cave of Origin, Alpha Sapphire only): ' *'Gym #8 - Wallace (Sootopolis City, Water-type): *'Wally (Victory Road): ' *'Elite Four #1 - Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): ' *'Elite Four #2 - Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): ' *'Elite Four #3 - Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): ' *'Elite Four #4 - Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): ' *'Steven - Champion Battle (Ever Grande City, Steel-type): ' *'Post-Game:' Considering that the Delta Episode involves fighting nasty types such as Dragon, Flying and Psychic which are far from kind to Blaziken... yeah. No. Moves Like all other starters, Torchic is received at level 5, at which point it knows Scratch, Growl and Ember. It also gets Sand Attack at level 10, but you won't need much other than Ember until you evolve. Peck comes at level 14, and is generally not that useful except for Water-types, which you won't want your chick to fight anyway. At level 16, with evolution, Combusken gets Double Kick, which is a powerful base-60 STAB move and will serve you well for a long time to come throughout the game; it is also the best possible move for Roxanne's Pokémon, if you evolve before the first gym battle, as it can break through Sturdy thanks to its two-hit nature. Flame Charge comes at level 20, and you will generally want it over Ember, particularly if your Combusken is slower than normal and/or has subpar Special Attack. At level 25, the line learns Quick Attack, but the typing and base damage make it not really useful at this point. Bulk Up, at level 31, is a good option for physically-oriented Blaziken liners, though unless you're sure you can take a hit you're probably better off teaching Power-Up Punch than Bulk Up, and you can get the former much earlier in the game, right after Brawly. Focus Energy comes at level 36, right before evolution, and should just be ignored. After evolution, instead, the much more useful Blaze Kick comes around. It's a very good move for this level, although towards the end, you will probably want to consider Flamethrower or Fire Blast instead, or reteach Flare Blitz through the Move Relearner, which is a level 1 move. Speaking of Move Relearners, you can also get High Jump Kick the same way. Essentially, you can transform your Blaziken into the ultimate war machine the very moment it evolves, if you have two Heart Scales. Yes, two. Blaziken does learn more moves after evolving, of course, although none of them are particularly useful: Slash, at 44, is no longer strong as it would be a good ten levels prior; Brave Bird is possibly the only noteworthy one, coming at level 50. Sky Uppercut can be accessed at level 57 if you don't like the recoil chance that High Jump Kick carries. Lastly, if you were somehow out of Heart Scales, you can also learn Flare Blitz naturally at level 63. Blaziken has outstanding battle capabilities. Whether yours is physical or special, you WILL find a way to use it well. Physically-oriented ones have it easier, but there are a few nifty moves in the special department as well. Power-Up Punch, accessible after the second gym, is great for boosting your Attack as well as dealing considerable damage; Low Sweep and Bulldoze are also fairly early-game TMs, and will deal a lot of damage at that point, when used against the right types. Fire Pledge will provide you with excellent Fire STAB right when you enter Mauville City, and if your starter as a +Special Attack or a -Attack nature it will deal more damage than Blaze Kick. Dig offers a temporary boost for Bulldoze power and Earthquake, much later on, tops Ground coverage. You get Rock coverage too, in the form of Rock Slide or Stone Edge, whichever you prefer to use for trade-off purposes between base power and accuracy. Keep in mind that Rock Tomb is also useful in the early game, as it's boosted to 60 BP and 95% accuracy in this generation. Shadow Claw is a good option if you lack Ghost or Dark coverage in your team. Lastly, for specially-oriented Blaziken, Sunny Day and Solarbeam are great Fire-type classics, and allow Blaziken to actually tackle Water opponents as well, when the Sunny side is up. Flamethrower is a must, or Fire Blast failing that, if you like to live dangerously; Overheat can work too, but you probably won't prefer it to either of those two because it only works in the short term. Focus Blast offers Fighting STAB coverage, although it's also inaccurate. Support moves available include Will-O-Wisp, useful for dealing with physical sweepers, as well as Swords Dance for physical sets. Recommended movesets: ''Physical: High Jump Kick / Sky Uppercut / Brick Break, Flare Blitz, and any two between Brave Bird / Stone Edge / Earthquake / Shadow Claw'' ''Special: Sunny Day, Flamethrower / Fire Blast, Solarbeam, Focus Blast'' Other Torchic's base stats Combusken's base stats Blaziken's base stats Mega Blaziken's base stats *'What Nature do I want? '''Any Attack-boosting one will be great, but a Special Attack boost is also good. Adamant might be best in the long term, but it nerfs Fire Pledge early on. Lonely and Naughty make no dents in its amazing offensive capabilities, but also make Blaziken frailer in turn. Speed-lowering natures are to be avoided if possible, as Blaziken's natural Speed is not that high, especially in its standard (non-Mega) form. Modest is workable with a special set. *'How good is the Torchic line in a Nuzlocke? Definitely good, although it has some fairly bad matchups early on. It's more of a late game Pokémon than not, and it can basically wreck more than half of the Elite Four + Champion on its own; it also has good matchups against otherwise threatening gyms, such as Flannery's and Norman's, but it will have trouble dealing with the water segment of the game (from Lilycove to Sootopolis). Oddly, it's more useful in Alpha Sapphire than in Omega Ruby as far as the evil teams go, because it has Fighting STAB for Sharpedo, but not much to fight Camerupt with, and Camerupt has Ground STAB. *'''Weaknesses: Flying (neutrality if Torchic), Ground, Water, Psychic (neutrality if Torchic) *'Resistances:' Bug (x0.25, regular resistance if Torchic), Steel, Fire, Grass, Ice, Dark (neutrality if Torchic) *'Immunities:' None *'Neutralities:' Normal, Fighting, Poison, Ghost, Electric, Dragon, Fairy, Rock (weakness if Torchic) Category:Incomplete Analyses